Republicans, Anti-Muslim Extremist To Launch Anti-Palestine Caucus

“When a Palestinian attacker is killed, bury the body quietly and anonymously in a potter's field,” is one of the recommendations by Daniel Pipes.

Two Republican Congressmen will launch the “Congressional Israel Victory Caucus” (CIVC) in an attempt to further their Islamophobic vision for Israel that has been denying Palestinians their basic rights to live since 1948, on Thursday, April 27.

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH) will enlist the help of known conspiracy theorist Daniel Pipes to introduce a new U.S. strategy that will strive to reform the debate on Arab-Israel peace process and make it more focused on Israel’s needs.

“Israel is America’s closest ally in the Middle East, and the community of nations must accept that Israel has a right to exist — period,” said Rep. Johnson. “This is not negotiable now, nor ever. The Congressional Israel Victory Caucus aims to focus on this precept, and better to inform our colleagues in Congress about daily life in Israel and the present-day conflict. I look forward to co-chairing this very important caucus with Congressan DeSantis.”

Pipes’ Middle East Forum (MEF) is supporting the agenda and released a statement this week stating, “CIVC builds on ideas promoted by the Middle East Forum that are now gaining support among analysts, in the U.S. Congress, in the executive branch and in Israel.”

The “ideas” that Pipes’ talked about are based on a paper the anti-Muslim advocate himself wrote titled “The Way to Peace: Israeli Victory, Palestinian Defeat,” and proposes a number of ways to break the Palestinian spirit.

The paper endorses U.S. support for Israel by proposing collective punishment for Palestinians — a crime under international law — and recommends shutting down their power and water supply, occupying their lands and creating Jewish settlements on them and revoking the Palestinian people of their residency in response to violent acts. In fact, it even suggests killing Palestinians and then dumping their bodies “anonymously in a potter's field.”

Most of these recommended acts, which go against the very grain of common decency and human right values, are already being undertaken by the Israeli government. What this caucus aims at is to acquire explicit support and approval of the United States for these horrific crimes. It’s objective is an “Israel Victory” — never mind the fact that there is no such thing.

What we need is justice for both Palestinians and Israelis; not the alternative which is apartheid occupation.

However, these statements are no surprise coming from Pipes who has decades of history of attacking Muslims.

In 1990, he wrote an article in National Review stating, “Fears of a Muslim influx have more substance than the worry about jihad. Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene.”

In 1995, in the aftermath of Oklahoma City bombings, Pipes blamed Muslims saying, “People need to understand that this is just the beginning. The [Muslim] fundamentalists are on the upsurge, and they make it clear that they are targeting us.” In fact, the attack was carried out Timothy McVeigh, an anti-government right-wing extremist with no links to Islam.

In 2004, Pipes indicated his approval of Japanese internment camps in America during World War II and encouraged them to be used as a model for dealing with Muslims today.

He also gave birth to a totally false theory that there are a hundreds of “no-go zones” in Europe run by Shariah law where non-Muslims and even police are afraid to go. This notion was debunked by Bloomberg.

He also called for the banning of hijab and burqa — full-body coverings worn by Muslim women— claiming terrorists would soon start wearing the garment.

“But why wait for them to engage in more murders? Why close the barn door only after the horse has run away? Far smarter would be to ban whole-body covers in public places now,” he said.

Human rights watchdogs have blasted Johnson and DeSantis for associating with Pipes.

“There’s no such thing as an 'Israeli Victory,'” saidRabbi Alissa Wise, Jewish Voice for Peace Deputy Director. “There is only justice, for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis together. The alternative is ongoing occupation, apartheid, and dispossession. We are coming up on 50 years of occupation, and 70 years since the Nakba, the violent displacement of Palestinian people during the establishment of the State of Israel. There is no better time for congressional leaders to demonstrate that they are on the side of human rights, not the side of ongoing apartheid and collective punishment.”